Okay, some more progress on the cabin air filter housing.
I was dead set on not adding any material to the firewall plug (only making clerance for the braces), since that part is already kinda tricky to install. Figured any extra features would only make it worse. However, this put me at a point where I was fighting for fractions of a mm on the housing to find a compromise between space for the filters, clearance for the braces, clearance for the wiper linkage and clearance for install/removal.
Eventually, I realized this made up constraint was negatively impacting the usability of these pieces, so I decided to transfer two small features onto the firewall plug. Yes, this means I need to reprint what I already have, but oh well.
Here's my test fit prototypes, attached with the most professional of methods:
In place:
Moving those two bumps to the firewall plug means I have miiiles of clearance for installing the filter housing. The middle tab on the windshield cowl does slightly interfere if you try to just lower the housing on, but tilting it up lines the tab up perfectly with the bore for the middle fastener, so it all works out!
And here's a quick screenshot of the assembly in CAD:
You can see I still need to model in all the sealing surfaces on the filter housing, but the overall geometry of the two pieces is feeling pretty final at this point.
Honestly not thrilled about the amount of sealing surfaces I've had to add, but I guess that's what you get when your design interferes with EVERYTHING.
I was dead set on not adding any material to the firewall plug (only making clerance for the braces), since that part is already kinda tricky to install. Figured any extra features would only make it worse. However, this put me at a point where I was fighting for fractions of a mm on the housing to find a compromise between space for the filters, clearance for the braces, clearance for the wiper linkage and clearance for install/removal.
Eventually, I realized this made up constraint was negatively impacting the usability of these pieces, so I decided to transfer two small features onto the firewall plug. Yes, this means I need to reprint what I already have, but oh well.
Here's my test fit prototypes, attached with the most professional of methods:
In place:
Moving those two bumps to the firewall plug means I have miiiles of clearance for installing the filter housing. The middle tab on the windshield cowl does slightly interfere if you try to just lower the housing on, but tilting it up lines the tab up perfectly with the bore for the middle fastener, so it all works out!
And here's a quick screenshot of the assembly in CAD:
You can see I still need to model in all the sealing surfaces on the filter housing, but the overall geometry of the two pieces is feeling pretty final at this point.
Honestly not thrilled about the amount of sealing surfaces I've had to add, but I guess that's what you get when your design interferes with EVERYTHING.
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